What Is The Use Of Computer In Legal Work?

Computer technology provides the opportunity for the greatest improvements in the field of legal research since the advent of indexing. Once relevant legal material is entered into a computer memory it can be retrieved directly through the use of programmes that scan the material for identified words or phrases, groups of words or phrases, or citations. The initial costs of these computer-based libraries can be enormous: Every word of all relevant legal resources, including laws, regulations, reported and unreported cases, books and articles, must be entered into the memory. Once this memory is stored, it can be retrieved with the use of relatively simple computer programmes. Comprehensive data banks can be produced only by major public or private institutions. In the United States, for example, access to general legal data banks is available for purchase from two private companies, including the largest private publisher of reported cases